Going global needs local support
By MARTIN EKPEKE.
Recently the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA)
unveiled a draft policy on software in Nigeria for review, and
called on stakeholders within the Nigeria IT space for input. The
Nigerian software industry is potentially a $6 billion industry.
When all necessary support and encouragement is given, the industry
can surpass the contributions from the oil industry, especially as
the software industry is not a capital intensive sector. The big
question is how can the Nigerian software industry be encouraged?
The opportunity offered by software is enormous. The software
industry must be treated as national priority, as one report puts it
“there is a need to accelerate the process of creating an enabling
environment for the sustainable growth of the Nigeria software
industry”.
The interest and demand of the local market for software products
and services need to be increased. To stimulate, strengthen and
support the software industry, government needs to work with
professional bodies like the Nigeria Computer Society and Institute
of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON) to create greater
awareness of the benefits of software.
With Nigeria having a large youthful, educated and enterprising
populace, there are so many opportunities in the software industry
that can unleash the potentials of the Nigerian nation.
‘Software and services form the largest and fastest-growing part of
the information technology market, ’ according to IBM 2005 financial
report. ICT has played a major role in all sector of the Nigeria
economy development today, and software is the engine room of that
development because it is required for the effective use of ICT
properties; in PCs, handhelds, mobile phones, the Internet, GSM,
wireless telephony, network devices, and telecom equipment.
There are several local software providers doing well in Nigeria,
but as a whole the software industry needs to move faster than it is
doing at present. A large proportion of Nigeria’s software business
is in the hands of firms based outside Nigeria. Awareness is low
about the benefits of local software; as a result, local developers
are losing out to foreign software providers. Government need to
give some incentives and create a supportive environment for local
software developers. The development of technology parks will be a
better way of encouraging them; such parks will be able to provide
them with security, constant power supply, subsidized office space
and IT infrastructures.
List of local software companies
Peers Consulting Limited
Computer Systems Associates (Nigeria) Limited (CSA)
Datatronics Nigeria Ltd.
Dafinone Consulting Limited
Eresoft
BISM Limited
Inlaks Computers Limited
Future Technology Systems
Programos Software Group
Labyet Polaris Nig. Limited
Microsoft Nigeria
Multisoft Consulting
Okuta Computer Systems Limited
Open Software
Financial.Com Nigeria Ltd.
Precise Financial Systems
ProGenics Corp Limited
Simplex Systems
SystemSpecs
Tara Systems Ltd
Wadof Software Consulting
Courtesy: Jidaw.com and IT Edge
Intelligence Unit.
